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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28838826">Grandma's Garden</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpringZephyr/pseuds/SpringZephyr'>SpringZephyr</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Inazuma Eleven: Ares no Tenbin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crushes, F/M, Fluff, Gardens &amp; Gardening, Goujin Tetsunosuke (background), Love Confessions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:54:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,664</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28838826</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpringZephyr/pseuds/SpringZephyr</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Norika helps Kirina plant a garden for his grandmother.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hiura Kirina/Umihara Norika</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Grandma's Garden</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Request: "Hi, Can you do a shoujo fanfiction about Norika and Hiura meeting at his grandma house for helping him with gardening, unexpected their learn more of each other and Hiura confess her why the reasons he likes her. Sorry, i really like these characters but also when it is shipped. I am really grateful when you do that for me. Thank you."</p><p>I think I forgot what analogy means, but I couldn't think of a better phrase and I don't feel like editing today, lol. I had so many spin-off ideas while writing this? Might have to write more some day, hm...</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Everything looks good on Norika, even old shirts with too short sleeves and jeans with holes in the knees.</p><p> </p><p>Kirina blinks, wondering why he thought of that. He also won’t deny that it’s true -- Norika <em> does </em> look good in everything. It’s not just the clothes, though. It’s the way she smiles, slow and easy, like even complete strangers are her best friend. The way the light in her eyes dances whenever she’s excited, and how she never backs down from a challenge. </p><p> </p><p>Since coming home from Russia, Norika has started growing her hair out again. It’s starting to regain some of its previous fluffiness, a physical reminder of how open to change Norika is. He hasn’t asked her if she’s going to cut it again, because Norika herself probably doesn’t know yet. </p><p> </p><p>“You wanted my help with this?” Norika asks.</p><p> </p><p>She picks up a trowel. It’s a gentle reminder that Kirina invited her over to garden, and not so he could spend all afternoon thinking about how amazing one of his teammates is.</p><p> </p><p>Kirina smiles weakly, in what he hopes will serve as a decent apology, but also because he’s about to admit something he probably shouldn’t. “Grandma’s back is getting too bad for her to take care of the garden by herself,” he says. “...So thank you.”</p><p> </p><p>The garden has always been one of Grandma’s favorite pastimes. The fresh carrots and beans are responsible for Kirina’s entire soccer career, as far as she is concerned. And she always plants some flowers on the side of the garden, closest to the house, for decoration.</p><p> </p><p>This will be the first year Grandma will have a garden that she hasn’t planted herself. It might be a little smaller than normal, but he hopes it will make her happy anyway, every time she looks out the kitchen window and sees it.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s all right,” Norika replies. “I understand.”</p><p> </p><p><em> Does she </em>, Kirina wonders.</p><p>Apparently, she does. She tells him all about her mom inheriting her parents’ fishing boats as she sorts through packets of seeds, about how her grandparents were both happy and sad when they realized that little Norika could haul the heavy fishing nets back onboard more easily than them now.</p><p> </p><p>“But you didn’t invite me here to talk about that,” she adds quickly.</p><p> </p><p>The look on Norika’s face, Kirina realizes, is one that also looks both happy and sad. It doesn’t feel right to let the conversation end, just like that. “It’s always been me and grandma.”</p><p> </p><p>There are a lot of things he doesn’t know about loss. Some things, but not everything. Kirina barely remembers what his parents were like, doesn’t remember grandpa at all.</p><p> </p><p>When he catches Norika biting her lip, he worries that he’s said the wrong thing. “This garden is like my grandparents’ boats,” she says finally, “so we have to keep it in good shape!”</p><p> </p><p>She won’t accept anything other than an explanation after that, so Kirina shows her how deep to dig the holes, how to press the seeds into the soil and cover them with dirt, and how much space is needed between each plant. “Don’t worry about the fertilizer,” he says, because he’s already fertilized the soil.</p><p> </p><p>Kirina wants to say more after that, but can’t. He’s too busy thinking about Norika and her grandparents, and the thoughts chain his words up so they can’t leave his throat. His own grandma is healthy -- the back pains have slowed her down, have made her more reluctant to kneel in piles of dirt, but she still gets out of bed with a smile every morning.</p><p> </p><p>Still, he can’t help but worry sometimes.</p><p> </p><p>“Did you know that you’re one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met?” Kirina asks suddenly.</p><p> </p><p>He’s aware that Norika worries about things sometimes. Everyone does. But the way Norika handles it, compared to himself or almost anybody else, is so… cool. She has a way of taking her problems and turning them into fuel for something better.</p><p> </p><p>The Football Frontier was a good example of that. But before the tournament, there were school bullies, teachers. Every time someone said she couldn’t do something, Norika found a way to do it anyway.</p><p> </p><p>“So are you,” Norika says back, which honestly surprises him.</p><p> </p><p>Kirina looks at Norika, but Norika doesn’t look at him. She is, at the moment, focused very intently on the hole she is digging. It’s probably just the summer weather, but her face looks pinker than usual.</p><p> </p><p>Fifteen minutes pass.</p><p> </p><p>Most of them are spent in silence, until Kirina risks another glance in Norika’s direction. He observes the diligent way she works, the perfectly even spaces between every flower she plants, and how the weeds and rocks she removes from the garden are stacked in a neat pile.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you sure you’ve never done this before?” Kirina asks.</p><p> </p><p>“Absolutely not,” Norika confirms, even though she’s succeeding at this task like she does it every day of her life. Then she finds a particularly large worm in the hole she’s digging, and grins in delight. “This would make excellent fishing bait!”</p><p> </p><p>He laughs, because the way Norika finds excitement in even small things is just too beautiful, and listens as she rambles about the importance of keeping worms cool, and of the styrofoam containers she keeps at home for them. Worms are a lot like plants, apparently -- they both need nutritious soil, moisture, and they’ll dry out with too much sunlight.</p><p> </p><p>Despite living on an island and being surrounded by fisherman, boats, and sushi shops, Kirina has only held a fishing rod once, maybe twice, in his life. There are a lot of things he doesn’t know.</p><p> </p><p>He hopes Norika wouldn’t laugh at him if she found out.</p><p> </p><p>They go back to working, but the thought doesn’t leave Kirina alone. It takes only a few minutes for Kirina to break the silence again, this time blurting, “Do you want to go fishing some time?” before he can stop himself.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Norika would never judge someone for something like that. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> That’s what you thought about Goujin before telling him you didn’t like his dad’s weird cooking. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Both thoughts flee from his mind once Norika looks at him again, this time after rubbing her nose. The action leaves behind a brand new streak of dirt, that she is somehow completely unaware of, and the result makes Norika appear so endearing that Kirina temporarily forgets how to breath.</p><p> </p><p>When he remembers, the first thought that comes to mind is <em> Goujin eventually forgave you for calling his dad’s cooking weird. He understood that you hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings by saying that. </em> It’ll be the same way with Norika, he’s suddenly sure -- even if she laughs at him, they’ll both get over it eventually.</p><p> </p><p>He wants to spend more time with Norika, even if it means doing something he’s hardly ever done before.</p><p> </p><p>“Do you have a fishing pole?”<br/><br/>“No.”</p><p> </p><p>“Then you can borrow one of mine!”</p><p> </p><p>“Then it’s a date!” he says, and nearly chokes as the words leave his mouth.</p><p> </p><p>What happened to that “cool as ice” persona their sponsors described him as during the Football Frontier? It’s melting, that’s what. Kirina ducks his head, starts digging his next hole -- he’s not paying attention to where he’s digging, so it ends up a little too far to the right -- hoping he can hide his embarrassment from Norika. Or blame the sun for the possible blush on his face, if he has to.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s a date” is something his grandmother says all the time. But it probably means something different to Norika, who’s not ninety years old.</p><p> </p><p>“You okay?!”</p><p> </p><p>He nearly chokes again as Norika’s hand lands on his back. This is Norika, the girl who let him try on her lip gloss once when they were eight -- which is a bad analogy, now that he thinks about it. Without Norika’s influence, he never would’ve been comfortable dressing up as a nurse to sneak into that hospital during the FFI. She’s impacted his life in a lot of ways, and maybe it’s only logical for her to have this effect on him too.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m fine. Just thinking about…”</p><p> </p><p>“About where we’ll go next?” Now that Kirina is speaking normally again, Norika rocks back on her heels and looks toward the sky. “Playing soccer on Inakuni is fun, but I already miss the competitive atmosphere. I don’t feel like I can challenge myself here anymore.”</p><p> </p><p>He’s not sure how Norika made the jump from going fishing, calling it a date, to playing soccer, but he agrees with that line of thought. “Me too. Most of us didn’t even know what a hissatsu was before -- and there’s still so much I have to learn about them!”</p><p> </p><p>“And Coach’s training techniques!”</p><p> </p><p>“How to be a playmaker!”</p><p> </p><p>“And -- ”</p><p> </p><p>All of Kirina’s grandmother’s plants had new homes in the garden by the time they finished comparing their lists of things they’d wanted to do before returning home. </p><p> </p><p>“Coach did give me some weighted gloves to train with, though,” Norika mutters thoughtfully. “But I use them pretty much every day...”</p><p> </p><p>Kirina had mentioned wanting to learn other positions, similar to how the Russian team could play any position, which inspired this newest train of thought.</p><p> </p><p>“I could probably fix up something similar with some heavy cloth, a needle and thread, and some rice,” Kirina muses. “Coach gave me a book on soccer tactics to read on the island. Do you want to borrow it some time?”</p><p> </p><p>“Maybe on that…” she hesitates, a smile, almost embarrassed smile taking over. “... that date?”</p><p> </p><p>“I-if you…”<br/><br/>“Of course! I mean, as long as you meant it that way…”</p><p> </p><p>Kirina takes a deep breath, knowing that if one of them doesn’t put a stop to this now, they’ll probably be going back and forth like this forever. It’s a date. They can call it a date. “How about lunch at the park on Tuesday? We can go fishing afterwards.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Also I keep tagging Goujin as a background character, haha. I love Goujin so much, someone please give me an excuse to write him more.</p><p>Still taking Inazuma requests, btw. That's almost a permanent thing for me.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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